"At $24 billion, the volume of new issuances in the United States actually doubled in the first quarter from a year earlier. But if you exclude the gargantuan stock sale from Visa, the total value in the first quarter was about $4.6 billion, down 62 percent from last year...market is scaring a lot of companies from going public. A total of 83 companies withdrew their initial public offerings this year and another 24 have delayed share sales, according to Ernst and Young."